Bensonhurst

Bensonhurst has a clearly defined border, with Gravesend to the southeast Midwood to the east, Borough Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the west, and Bath Beach to the southwest. Starting at the neighborhood’s southern tip at the corner of Stillwell Avenue to Avenue P, east to McDonald Avenue, north 60th Street, northwest to Fort Hamilton Parkway, southwest to Bay Ridge, southeast to 14th avenue, south to 86th Street, and southeast back to Stillwell Avenue.
In 200s, an influx of Chinese and Former Soviet Union immigrants began to arrive. Chinese-American residents and Chinese immigrants have opened many restaurants and shops along 18th Avenue, Bay Parkway and 86th Street. The Former Soviet Union (Jews-refugee) population has dissipated in recent years. Despite increasingly diversity, Bensonhurst is heavily Italian-American. However, the Italian-speaking community is becoming “increasingly elderly and isolated, with the small , tight-knit enclaves they built around the city slowly disappearing as they give way to demographic changes.” Its main thoroughfare, 18th Avenue (also known as Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard) between roughly 60th Street and Shore Parkway, is lined with predominantly small, Italian-owned businesses- many of which have remained in the same family for several generations. Eight-sixth Street is another popular local thoroughfare, lined by the arches of the elevated BMT West End Subway Line.